By ÁLVARO SERRANO

Whisky, like any non-clear spirit, is an acquired taste - and I mean acquired in the same way that we acquire wealth, or possessions: it takes work. You have to actually decide that you’re going to drink it. That’s the first step.

The next step is that you do drink it, and then usually you wish you hadn’t. Whisky doesn’t taste “nice” - or so you naively think in your formative weeks or months of discovery. How wrong you are, but your feelings are at least normal.

This is exactly right. Those first few weeks are where most people give up and decide whisky isn’t for them. Keep at it though, and there’s a wondrous world of sensation just around the corner.